U.S. completes first day of U23 World Championships in Bucharest

BUCHAREST, Romania – The U.S. Greco-Roman team wrapped up day one of the U23 World Championships on Monday in Bucharest, Romania.

None of the first five Americans advanced to the second day of competition, though two-time U23 World Team member Jesse Porter was close.

To begin his tournament at 77 kg, Porter wrestled Fatih Cengiz of Turkey, who he faced last year in the first round of the same tournament.

Cengiz took the win, 8-0, and eventually moved onto the semifinals. However, in the semis, Cengiz was upset by 2018 U23 European champion Rajbek Bisultanov of Denmark, who outlasted the World champ, 4-1, ultimately ending Porter’s 2018 U23 World Championships.

2017 Cadet World champion and 2018 Junior World bronze medalist Cohlton Schultz represented the U.S. for the second time this summer on the World stage after competing at the Junior Worlds in September in Slovakia.

Schultz dropped his first-round match to 2013 Cadet World silver medalist Boban Zivanovic of Serbia, 4-0. The Serbian fell short of making the finals, losing a 10-1 bout to three-time age-group World medalist Osman Yildirim of Turkey, ultimately cutting Schultz’s tournament short.

Returning to the World stage for the first time since the 2015 Junior World Championships, Travis Rice put up a fight against 2017 Junior World runner-up and 2015 Cadet World champion Oleksandr Hrushyn of Ukraine in the first round at 63 kg.

Hrushyn was upended by Katsuaki Endo of Japan in the quarterfinals, who came back from a deficit to defeat the Ukrainan, 8-4.

Making his international debut, Dalton Duffield represented the USA at 55 kg. In his first bout, he took on Bence Kovacs of Hungary, who tallied fifth place finishes at both the World Military Championships and the U23 European Championships earlier this year.

Duffield scored first, but it was all Kovacs from, who scored a takedown and finished the bout from top with a 10-2 technical fall. Kovacs then lost in the quarterfinals to Balbai Dordokov of Kyrgystan, 9-1, ending Duffield’s World debut.

At 87 kg, George Sikes led for most of the match in his tournament opener against Anton Kurs of Belarus, who was fifth at the 2018 U23 European Championships. Kurs scored on a late four-pointer to hold onto a 4-2 win over the American.

Kurs eventually lost to 2018 Senior Pan American champion Daniel Gregorich of Cuba to end Sikes’ tournament.

Action continues Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET) live on Trackwrestling.com.

2018 U23 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 12-18

U.S. Greco-Roman results
55 kg: Dalton Duffield (Moore, Okla./NMU-OTS)
LOSS Bence Kovacs (Hungary), 10-2

63 kg: Travis Rice (Washington, Ill./Illinois RTC/New York AC)
LOSS Oleksandr Hrushyn (Ukraine), 4-0

77 kg: Jesse Porter (Albany, N.Y./New York AC)
LOSS Fatih Cengiz (Turkey), 8-0
87 kg: George Sikes (Fort Pierce, Fla./NMU-OTS)
LOSS Anton Kurs (Belarus), 4-2

130 kg: Cohlton Schultz (Parker, Colo./New York AC)
LOSS Boban Zivanovic (Serbia), 4-0